Credit: ©The Royal Society
    Image number: RS.15850

    Otocousticon

    Date
    30 November 1675
    Creator
    Isaac Newton (1642 - 1727, British) , Natural philosopher
    Object type
    Archive reference number
    Manuscript page number
    p1
    Material
    Dimensions
    height (page): 195mm
    width (page): 144mm
    Subject
    Physics
       > Acoustics
    Content object
    Description
    Figure of an otocousticon (a trumpet for hearing) by Thomas Mace (1612/13-c. 1709). Mace was at Trinity College, Cambridge, and an accomplished lutanist (despite being deaf) and author of Music's Monument (1676). The instrument is described by Isaac Newton in a letter dated 30 November 1675 to Henry Oldenburg.

    There is an earlier sketch of a similar instrument by John Wallis in 1668 (EL/W1/63/001).

    There are copies of this figure at LBO/7/279 and LBC/7/422.
    Related fellows
    Henry Oldenburg (1612 - 1677, German) , Scientific correspondent
    Isaac Newton (1642 - 1727, British) , Natural philosopher
    Associated place
    <The World>
       > Europe
          > United Kingdom
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